Did Trump just renew the Charlotte-Cincinnati rivalry over who is the ‘Queen City’?
President Donald Trump might have just unknowingly reignited a lesser-known rivalry between cities during his speech in Charlotte on Friday.
He called Cincinnati, Ohio, the “Queen City.”
Trump was speaking at the North Carolina Opportunity Now Summit when he made the reference.
“I worked in Cincinnati one summer,” he said. The comment was met with applause until he continued. “I did a good job, I did a good job. I love Cincinnati — the Queen City.”
It was “the only line the crowd didn’t cheer for,” according to one Twitter user.
They weren’t the only one to notice.
So who is the real Queen City?
People from Charlotte will tell you it’s us. But both cities have (arguably) valid claims.
Charlotte claims ownership of the moniker because Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the wife of King George III of Great Britain, the Observer reported the last time this rivalry surfaced.
The city was being founded around the time of their union in 1768, according to historical record and media reports, prompting the colonists to name it after Queen Charlotte to stay in the crown’s good graces.
And the “Queen City” nickname was born.
Cincinnati, on the other hand, experienced so much growth in the early 1800s that citizens started referring to it as “The Queen City” or “The Queen of the West,” historical record shows.
There’s even a poem from 1854 about it:
“And this Song of the Vine, This greeting of mine, The winds and the birds shall deliver, To the Queen of the West, In her garlands dressed, On the banks of the Beautiful River.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 3:30 PM.
